


It was just a handshake!

by Fericita



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:15:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23149108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fericita/pseuds/Fericita
Summary: Emma and Henry in quarantine.  From a prompt on tumblr from middlemarch.  Thanks The Spastic Fantastic for beta-ing!
Relationships: Alice Green & Emma Green, Emma Green/Henry Hopkins
Comments: 10
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sagiow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagiow/gifts).



“It was just a handshake!” Emma groaned in the phone. Henry could hear Alice’s high-pitched response on the other end, and continued rubbing Emma’s feet, giving her looks of sympathy. “No, I don’t think you should worry Mom and Dad, it’s probably nothing. But they want us to stay home until we can get tested since she tested positive. Yes, Henry’s staying home too.” More unintelligible words from Alice, and then Emma finished with “I’m fine. Really. No need to worry.”

She ended the call and Henry took the phone from her, setting it on the end table. “Are you really not worried?”

She laid down fully on the couch, her feet still in this lap. “Not particularly. Are you worried? You shook hands with her too.”

He sighed. “No. I mostly feel useless. Until we get tested we can’t go into the hospital, and they could very much use us right now.”

Emma groaned. “You know Jed will never let us hear the end of it, either way. Either we miss helping him during his hour of triumph single-handedly rescuing the eastern seaboard from COVID-19 or we are the idiots who got infected when we shook hands with Rita Wilson in the airport.”

They both laughed. Henry sighed again. “But I can’t say I regret it. If you see Rita Wilson, and she talks to you about the book you’re reading, you take a picture and shake her hand.”

Emma covered her eyes and laughed again. “It’s something we can all agree on in these divided times. Even Alice was jealous.”

Henry stopped rubbing her feet in favor of laying down next to her on the couch, a tight squeeze, but one they both enjoyed. “At least I’m quarantined with my favorite person.”

“Mmmm. Same. And maybe now I can make up for all that sleep we lost during residency.”

Henry brushed her hair from her neck and nuzzled into her, breathing deeply and already feeling sleepy. He could take whatever Jed threw at them later. This, he planned to enjoy.


	2. RIP Ektorp

“The masks. All gone!” Henry and Emma could see the irritation coming off of Jed even in the poor quality of their FaceTime call. Had he found the darkest corner of the hospital to call them from? It matched his mood. “Someone even absconded with the mounted hand sanitizer from the waiting room bathroom. Meanwhile, Charlotte has been sleeping here! She thinks if she goes home they'll deem her non-essential and she won't get to come back.”

Mary’s face appeared on the screen. “How anyone could classify Charlotte, social worker extraordinaire, as ‘unessential’ boggles the mind, but this whole thing is pretty crazy. Though to be fair, Jed, that sanitizer mount had been loose for a while. It could have fallen off with the increase in use.” She turned her attention to Henry and Emma, squinting into the screen. “How are you two? Any symptoms yet?”

Emma sighed. “No, and they won’t test us if there are no symptoms because of the shortage of tests – “

“But we can’t come to work unless we get tested or the two week quarantine is up.” Henry finished for her. He shifted his head and Mary gasped.

“Goodness!” She exclaimed. “Is that your couch behind you? What happened?”

Henry, slightly red in the face, answered. “It’s…slightly broken. But I can fix it.”

Emma raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know. It probably wasn’t good quality wood to begin with, more like cardboard than oak. I think its days of use are over.”

“You need a surgeon’s touch. Come on, Emma, you think his prayer and woodworking will fix the couch? What were you doing anyway? Is watching Fleabag so strenuous?” The screen filled with Jed’s eye and forehead as he tried to look deeper into the recesses of their living room. He retreated and Emma could see Mary shaking her head in the background and mouthing what she thought to be "clueless”

Suddenly, the vision of Jed and Mary tilted and shifted and turned to muffled darkness. They heard Mary’s distant voice. “Jed! You have to tell them you were paged! Or hang up at least!”

Henry reached for the phone laughing. “That was a close call.”

They stood surveying the damaged couch, pillows spilling onto the floor, a sad, and Emma suspected permanent, crack along the middle. “We're down a couch. But we still have a loveseat.”

Henry grinned and leaned in towards her, making sure the phone was screen down and muted. Just to be sure he turned it off entirely, then turned his attention back to his wife.

“Aptly named. Want to see if we can get a matching set?”


End file.
